


Boots and Boys

by serenelystrange



Category: Leverage
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Humor, Leverage Secret Santa Gift Exchange 2019, Light Angst, M/M, Secret Lovers, that's what they are
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:46:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27375916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serenelystrange/pseuds/serenelystrange
Summary: Parker and Hardison are convinced Eliot is hiding a new girlfriend from them! They're *almost* right.Title absolutely taken from the Ke$ha song.
Relationships: Alec Hardison/Parker, Mr. Quinn/Eliot Spencer (Leverage)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 57
Collections: Leverage Secret Santa Exchange (Mod Gifts)





	Boots and Boys

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Arithanas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arithanas/gifts).



“I’m not watching another four hour documentary,” Hardison says as he and Parker head up the office for movie night with Eliot.

“I don’t know,” Parker replies, “The last one wasn’t too bad.”

Hardison squints his eyes and glares lightly at her, stopping her before they can go through the door to the building.

“It was about the history of steel. Literal steel, Parker. There was no way it needed to be four hours long. Plus, you fell asleep like thirty minutes in! I, however, was stuck listening to Eliot’s rants about how predatory capitalism ruined the steel industry.”

“And the rest of the world,” Parker reminds him, grinning.

Hardison sighs.

“And the rest of the world,” he agrees. “Still, four hours was too much.”

“We’ll make him watch the new Nolan movie,” Parker decides. “You know he gets into the conspiracies and the weird twists, just like you.”

Hardison grins.

“This is why you’re my favorite!”

They get to the office door, about ready to walk in when they hear something that sounds suspiciously like harsh whispers and rapid shuffling. The pause silently, trying to hear what’s going on before making their presence known.

“Fight?” Parker asks quietly, her brow wrinkled in concentration.

“Usually the bad guy is crying in pain by now,” Hardison whispers back.

“Ooh!” Parker’s eyes light up with glee. “You think he has a girl with him?”

“It’s movie night,” Hardison says, sounding only slightly petulant that Eliot might have forgotten about their longstanding tradition over some hook-up.

Parker just shrugs.

“Let’s find out,” she says, before pushing open the door and going in before Hardison can argue.

“Hey,” Eliot calls out, rubbing his wet hair down with a towel as he walks away from the general direction of the bathroom.

“What’s up?” Hardison says, trying to be subtle, as Parker just jumps right in with “your new girlfriend still in the shower?”

“Parker!” Hardison huffs, laughing awkwardly as Eliot just raises one eyebrow at them, neither confirming or denying a damn thing.

“No girlfriends here,” Eliot says, shrugging. “I’m allowed to shower alone, you know.”

“At the office?” Parker asks.

“Yes?” Eliot says, giving her a look like she’s the one acting weirdly suspicious.

“All right, then,” Parker says, smirking at him. “Keep your secrets.”

Hardison grins in delight and turns to look at her.

“I love when you talk nerdy, babe.”

“I know.”

“Are we doing this or what,” Eliot asks, gesturing towards the couch. “I’ll get the popcorn started.”

“Kettle corn!” Parker demands, before making herself comfortable on the couch as Hardison settles next to her.

“Alright,” Eliot agrees easily, heading to the little kitchen, bare feet moving silently.

His easy acquiescence sparks Hardison’s bullshit-ometer, and he thinks that Parker might actually be on to something. He shares a glance with Parker before speaking again.

“You know,” Hardison says. “We still haven’t all watched the latest Star Wars movie together. We should do that.”

From where he’s busying himself with the stovetop popcorn in the kitchen, Eliot just shrugs.

“Sure, whatever you guys want to watch.” He turns around briefly to give them a little smile. “This should only take a few minutes.” And then he goes back to cooking, as if he hasn’t just shorted out Hardison’s brain.

He turns to Parker silently, hoping his expression is accurately portraying the thoughts going through his head.

_Not once in over 5 years has Eliot agreed to watch Star Wars with me! And he hates when you have kettle corn, because of all the sugar! And also, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Eliot with wet hair outside of an actual fight! What pod-person has he been replace with???_

Parker nods seriously at him, as though she could actually read his mind. Hardison honestly wouldn’t even be surprised at this point.

But then Eliot is walking over with a giant bowl of delicious smelling kettle corn, and they decide that the mystery of pod-person Eliot will have to wait for another day.

Eliot’s weird behavior continues over the next few months, but Hardison and Parker find themselves frustrated by the fact that they never seem to catch him actually doing anything(or anybody) strange.

“Since when does he buy canned vegetables?” Parker asks, after Eliot had practically fled the scene from where they happened upon him at the little corner store down the street, a paper bag full of canned carrots and green beans clutched close to his chest.

“Strange things are afoot at the Circle K,” Hardison agrees, watching after Eliot’s rapidly retreating form with confusion.

“Most definitely” Parker agrees, sharing the grin with Hardison that she gives when she understands one of his so very many movie references.

“New boots?” Hardison asks Eliot another day.

Eliot looks down at his well-worn brown boots and shrugs. “Had em for a while,” he says, entirely too casually to actually be casual.

It might have been a trick of the light, but Hardison would swear that there was a blush across Eliot’s face.

“These aren’t yours,” Parker says, on yet another day, holding up a pair of faded jeans that she’d pulled from under the couch in the office.

“Of course they are,” Eliot says quickly, “Give em here.”

Hardison just watches the exchange with growing interest.

“You never leave your clothes lying around the office,” Parker says, pulling the jeans closer to her chest so Eliot can’t snatch them away.

“Well, I must have,” Eliot says, reaching out again just to have Parker dart away.

“I know your clothes,” she replies, eyeing the jeans critically. “These aren’t yours.”

“That’s creepy,” Eliot tries, glaring.

“A little bit,” Hardison feels compelled to agree.

“It’s my job to be observant!” Parker defends.

“Oh for the love of…dammit, Parker, just give me my pants!” Eliot is steadily turning redder and redder, with either embarrassment or anger. Either way, Hardison decides to stop this before it turns into a whole thing.

“Ok, ok,” he says, holding up his arms in a placating gesture. “Give El his pants back, Parker. We’ll question his fashion choices some other time.”

Parker glares for a moment, but ultimately gives in, tossing the jeans over to a relieved looking Eliot.

“You know,” she says to Eliot quietly, “it’s ok if you’re seeing somebody, you don’t have to hide them from us.”

Hardison nods in agreement, giving Eliot his most encouraging look.

“I’m not…there’s nobo..” Eliot begins, before Parker cuts him off.

“Even if that somebody isn’t a girl,” she says resolutely. She looks quickly over to Hardison before focusing her gaze back on Eliot. “We’d never judge you.”

“At least not about anything real,” Hardison agrees. “Your terrible taste in movies is still fair game.”

Eliot stares at them for a long moment, seeming to silently debate with himself.

“There’s nothing to tell,” he says, looking down at the floor to avoid the disappointed looks on Hardison and Parker’s faces.

Realizing this whole thing might be deeper than they expected, Parker and Hardison share another look before nodding.

“Sorry,” Hardison says, smiling weakly. “We just got caught up. We’ll get out of your personal business unless you bring it up.”

“Sorry, El,” Parker echoes.

“Thanks,” Eliot says quickly, looking uncharacteristically awkward and fidgety. “I’m just gonna…go home. See you later.”

Before Hardison or Parker can reply, he’s out the door, the bundled up jeans still clenched in his fists.

“Well,” Hardison says once Eliot has cleared out. “That was unfortunate.”

Parker can only nod in agreement.

It all comes to a head one night when they’re in the middle of a con. The nightclub is geared more towards the younger crowd, and if Hardison feels a little too old, then Eliot looks like he feels absolutely ancient. But the corrupt CEO is known to frequent the club, with his very large goons to protect him, and they can’t pass up the opportunity.

“You didn’t tell me we were going to a gay club,” Eliot hisses into his comm from wherever he’s hidden himself in the shadows.

“It’s not a gay club,” Hardison hisses back, rolling his eyes at Eliot’s dramatics. “It’s a club that doesn’t discriminate based on gender expression or sexual orientation.”

“Whatever,” Eliot says, suddenly sounding distracted.

“You see anything?” Parker asks, sidling up to Hardison and making them sway slightly, to at least try and look like they’re dancing and not, you know, on a stakeout in the middle of a nightclub.

They only get static in reply, as if Eliot had shoved his earpiece into the pocket of his jeans. Which, knowing Eliot, is exactly what he’s done.

“At least he doesn’t throw them away anymore,” Hardison muses, before sighing. “We should probably go make sure he’s not in real trouble, huh?”

“Probably,” Parker agrees.

The situation they find Eliot in isn’t exactly unusual, in that it involves him and a muscled man locked into some sort of grappling embrace.

The kissing, though, the kissing is new.

“Holy shit,” Hardison says.

Parker just cackles in delight.

“He seems ok to me,” she says, still laughing.

“We are on a job!” Hardison protests, but he can’t help but laugh fondly at Eliot.

Eliot, of course, chooses that moment to open his eyes. He spots them watching and rears back in a panic, only managing not to slam his head into the wall because his partner’s hand is there to cushion it.

The man with him looks up from where he’d been sucking a mark into Eliot’s neck with alarm. Eliot wavers in indecision for what feels like eternity before finally sighing and slumping his shoulders in defeat. He motions for Parker and Hardison to come over.

Just then, the man with him turns around, lofty curls draping attractively across his face.

“Evening,” he drawls, nodding his head at them and grinning wryly.

“Parker, Hardison,” Eliot sighs, “You remember Quinn, I’m sure.”

He’s just grateful that the lights of the club make it impossible to see how red his face is.

“You could have just told us,” Hardison says later. The bad guy has been caught and Leverage-d, the victim has been avenged, and they all get to go home and shower off the sticky sweetness of the nightclub.

Hardison is driving the nondescript sedan they have for jobs, and Parker is already passed out in the passenger seat. Eliot and Quinn are in the backseat, very studiously not touching.

“I know,” Eliot says, softly.

And the thing is, he does. He knows that neither Hardison nor Parker would care that he’s with a guy, or that the same guy maybe tried to kill him a few times. It’s bound to happen in their line of work.

“It was just nice,” Eliot continues, moving his hand so that it just barely brushes against Quinn’s, “having something that was just…all mine.”

Quinn grins and leans into Eliot a little more, before linking their hands together and shooting Hardison a look in the rear mirror as if daring him to argue.

“You’re adorable,” Hardison says before he can help it.

Quinn barks out a laugh at that before turning slightly to tease Eliot.

“He’s right, you know,” he says. “You’re cute as a button.”

Eliot just rolls his eyes, but doesn’t move his hand.

“Can still kick your ass, curls,” he says, smirking over at Quinn.

“We’ll see,” Quinn says, voice full of mischief and promise.

“Keep it PG for like 6 more blocks, kids,” Hardison says, feeling suddenly like every tired father on a road-trip that has ever existed. All at once.

“Sure thing, daddy,” Quinn drawls, laughing when both Hardison and Eliot look at him in horror.

“NO,” Eliot says.

“Absolutely not,” Hardison agrees.

Quinn just laughs again and drops his head to Eliot’s shoulder, closing his eyes.

The rest of the ride goes by in silence, but for the first time in months, it’s no longer awkward.

The End.


End file.
